One Thing Leads to Another

You know those weeks when you honestly cannot remember the last time your kids bathed?

It's been that kind of week around these parts.

Today marks the one week anniversary of us living in our new home, which means it marks the one week anniversary of throwing our lives into absolute, construction-dust-covered chaos. Right now my nostrils are burning from the smell of freshly sawed wood in the downstairs bathroom where Rocky and our friend are tearing out the subfloor.

I keep telling Rocky that I feel like we're taking one step forward and then two steps back. I guess that's what happens when you buy a fixer-upper. You go to make one simple improvement and open a can of worms. Upgrade our electrical panel? That will require ripping out a room's worth of drywall. Replace old peel-and-stick bathroom tile with new (for now) for a simple bathroom refresh? That requires ripping out the subfloor underneath said old tile since it's been discovered that the floor is rotted. A $60 project turned....???

Little victories have not been enough to keep my spirits up, but the weather is partly to blame for that. Today is the first sunny day in more than a week. My soul is utterly exhausted from lack of Vitamin D and warmth that only the sun can bring. My body aches from the unpacking, bending, lifting, scrubbing and rearranging, not to mention the fact that we're sleeping on a mattress laid upon hardwood floor since our box spring will not fit up the stairs. Old houses equal narrow passageways and tight corners. We will have to order a split box spring in order to get our bed off the floor. One more thing to add to the list.

Oh, and hubby's sick. Again. Poor guy cannot escape getting what seems to be a monthly cold that lasts at least a week. Even so, being the trooper he is, he won't allow himself to rest for too long. There's too much to do around here.

But the kids are loving the new house. They sleep like babies in their new rooms, new beds. They love having a yard, although this is only the 2nd day since we've lived here that the weather has been favorable enough to play outside. They are soaking up the sun and the outdoors and the fresh air. It's a joy to be able to send them outside and hear their laughter and know they're safe.

Rocky & I? We're just trying to get this house settled while finding time to rest and reconnect. The move has been hard on our patience, our relationship. Because of the TLC the house needs, it's been stressful in ways that normal moves are not. We still have some unpacked boxes after a week of living here. That's difficult for me to swallow, even though it's not a big deal. We have a very large house with plenty of storage and I still have unpacked boxes. Some things just can't be unpacked yet. I have to get over it.

I have to accept that I will not have a put-together house for a few months, maybe a year. Who knows.

All I know is that once that weather warms up, and that sun starts shining, I will be putting down my dust rag and vacuum and heading out to our deck with a pitcher of margaritas.

The house will wait.